The highway industry and corresponding governmental entities have developed highly refined visual cues for signaling motorists in the course of driving. These devices and schemes necessarily are elaborate and correspondingly costly, the latter aspect being justified in view of the potential injury and costs associated with accidents. The need for elaborate visual cue systems stems from the extended distances traveled by vehicles during the reaction or response times of typical drivers and the stopping distances involved in braking from higher speeds. A final aspect of such visual cuing involves a need to convey information relating the type of emergency or hazard which the motorist is about to encounter. Generally, such information cues are provided as large signs or roadway illumination devices positioned in hazardous areas.
To provide the individual motorist with a distress signaling scheme, somewhat severe restrictions are involved. Such systems or arrangements must achieve a high human perceptive response utilizing devices which are low in cost and suited for high volume markets. The perceptive response utilized for such purpose is either visual or aural, and the former generally is preferred for highway utilization in view of the intensities required with sound systems.
Generally, the motorist in distress will be stopped on the side of the highway in a position somewhat close to the road, a location obviously quite hazardous. To provide such a motorist with a signaling device, that device, to be practical, must be conveniently portable and of light weight and, if powered utilizing light sources and the like, should perform with a power supply which is assured and reasonable in nature. Visual perception must be achieved by the device, i.e. it must "catch the eye" of motorists in oncoming traffic and, once that attention has been achieved, some divulgation of the type emergency at hand should be conveyed. For example, it should be apparent to the oncoming motorist that a flat tire is being changed or that immediate help is required.
Perception utilizing light devices will be aided by the height of the device above the roadway or by adequate distance from the scene of distress, i.e. it should be mountable upon the roof of the car or well rearwardly thereof. Permanent mountings at automobile roof locations, however, are impractical. If possible, the device should illuminate the immediate scene, however, devices heretofore proposed have been too elaborate to gain popular acceptance. For the most part, only intermittent lighting of the auto tail light is available on a broad basis. Such an arrangement is helpful but it does not convey the type of emergency involved. A need, therefore, is present for a device which is low in cost to the consumer and meets the three visual cue criteria described above without undue trade-offs in consequence of cost.
Visual cuing designed to gain the attention or cognition of humans has been the subject of scientific inquiry for many years. Easily achieving what is sometimes referred to as "voluntary attention" has proved to be a difficult task, particularly at reasonable cost levels. The need for such achievement extends to applications beyond those described above in connecton with automotive motor vehicles. For example, room guests in hotel corridors during fire emergencies often experience difficulty in locating stairway exits, even though illuminated signs showing stairway locations are present. Effective but lower cost visual cuing devices are required in both the commercial and recreational marine fields, as well as in conjunction with slower moving vehicles such as tractors and the like.
Another requirement for effective but low cost visual cuing has arisen in connection with public emergency services as are associated with rescue squads or fire prevention equipment. Very often, members of the public are under such conditions of anxiety in an emergency that they provide inaccurate addresses. As a consequence, some form of apprisal of the location of a distress condition with respect to a home or the like will be quite helpful. Those of the public prone to such situation, i.e. those suffering heart disease or epilepsy, will find advantage in having available a visual cue which is highly perceptible to emergency vehicles from the highway. Further, neighborhoods now provide for the designation of "Block Parents" through the use of window signs. With the arrangement, when children of the neighborhood are in immediate distress, such homes are available for prompt help. Improved signaling from such homes when a block parent actually is available will aid in the effectiveness of the system.
Generally, in providing visual cuing to achieve attention, specific influencing factors are resorted to. Some of these factors, such as change and size, are characteristics of a stimulus situation. While larger size has been found to attract attention, such factor is not included for use in connection with the design of practical cuing devices. Change, however, has been determined by investigators to attract attention. Change, as determined by these investigators is " . . . movement in any direction: from one intensity to another; from absent to present; from red to green; from high to low; from moving to stationary." See the following publication in this regard:
I. Ruch, F. L., "Psychology and Life" (Fifth edition) Scott, Foresman and Company, Chicago, Ill., U.S.A.